leave the plane with both of us. We’ll help you get a feel for the air, sort your positioning out, that kind of thing. And I’ll be filming it all too. So at least you’ll look good.’
‘It’ll give us something to analyse on the ground,’ said Sam, ignoring Johnny’s comment. ‘Just another way of being extra thorough. The quicker you get the details right, the better you’ll be when you’re up there.’
‘It’ll also give us something to laugh at,’ added Johnny.
Ethan noticed a smile start to flicker across Sam’s face, but it was gone as quickly as it had appeared. He was beginning to understand the man a little more now, and since the jump he felt he could trust him absolutely.
‘As Sam said,’ said Johnny, ‘today’s ground training.’ He went over to the hangar wall and pulled out what looked to Ethan like a tea trolley.
‘What the hell’s that?’
‘The perfect way to make you look a total knob,’ said Johnny. ‘We’ll be using it to show you the basic moves you’ll need. You lie on top of it – that way you can practise the correct positions and movements in freefall.’
‘Are you having a laugh?’ Ethan looked doubtfully at the trolley.
Johnny shook his head and Ethan saw a rare seriousness on his face. ‘If you can’t do it down here, and do it well, then there’s no way we’re going to throw you out of a plane,’ he said. ‘It’s human error, not equipment failure that kills. Skydiving is only as dangerous as you make it. Get the basics right, and you can do this stuff without even thinking about it. It becomes instinctive. You’ll be fine.’
Ethan remembered Luke saying something similar about human error versus equipment failure. He listened even more intently to everything Sam and Johnny were saying.
Sam looked at him, his eyes hard. ‘Questions?’
Ethan shook his head. ‘Not yet anyway.’
‘Good,’ said Sam. ‘You’ve learned your first lesson: shut the hell up. It’s the only way you’ll learn. I’ll tell you when you can ask questions. Until then, just listen to us and do what we say. Understand?’
‘Totally,’ said Ethan, and meant it.
Johnny bent down and picked up a skydiving rig. ‘By the end of today you’ll know what this is, inside and out. You’ll know how to read an altimeter. You’ll know how to exit an aircraft and how to do a freefall – the correct body position, hand signals, canopy control – everything.’
Ethan nodded. Sam knew his stuff, that was obvious, but so did Johnny. He was a flash git – everyone knew it – but he was also an astounding skydiver. And Ethan could see that Sam had a lot of time for Johnny, despite the fact that they were different in almost every way. Johnny lived and breathed skydiving. What he didn’t know, you didn’t need to know. Ethan wondered if he’d ever be like that; hoped he would.
Johnny interrupted his thoughts. ‘Tomorrow, and for the rest of the week, you’ll be jumping from twelve thousand feet. Forecast is good – we shouldn’t have any problems. For each of your AFF jumps, we’ll be in constant radio contact, so we can guide you down, help you correct what you’re doing. Jump eight, your last jump, will be your first solo. You’ll be entirely on your own. Complete that, and you’re qualified. However . . .’ He paused and looked at Sam.
‘What?’ said Ethan.
‘Qualifying to jump solo doesn’t mean you can then just get into any plane and start throwing yourself out whenever you want,’ said Sam. ‘After AFF you have to do a further ten consolidation jumps before you’re classed as capable, experienced and safe. With each of those jumps, one of us will jump with you.’
Ethan saw a smirk slide across Johnny’s face. ‘And it’ll take a miracle for you ever to make it look as good as I do.’
Sam didn’t respond, but Ethan laughed.
It all felt so unreal. He couldn’t believe he was sitting there, listening to Johnny and Sam, learning to skydive. And somehow he’d got all this training for free. Somehow, Sam and Johnny had sorted something out. He had no idea how or why. But he knew Sam well enough to realize that any more questions about it would not go down well.
What followed was a day so intense, Ethan felt like his brain would burn up. Sam and Johnny pushed him hard. Lying on the trolley, he practised the freefall body position again and again. Sam didn’t